It all depends on your point of view

Today is New Year's Day. Jessica went out with Daddy to Chinatown last night and then they spent the night at a friends' house. She got about 7 or 8 hours of sleep. This became apparent when we were driving home from a playdate. She wanted chicken mcnuggets and since I suspected she wasn't going to be all that keen on the moroccan stew cooking in the Crockpot, I got her some. But by the time sheasked, I had already whizzed past the McDonald's on the turnpike.

Now, remember, she was sleep-deprived. So when she screamed at me to turn around and go back to the McDonald's, I took it in stride. I told her there was another coming up in 5 minutes, because I sincerely thought there was a McDonald's at the Westboro service plaza. Well, she didn't like the idea of driving to the next one and kept insisting I turn the car around. I didn't. But then I felt pretty bad when I discovered there was no McDonald's coming up. Fortunately, after a few more minutes of screaming, she fell asleep.

Being the softie and sucker that I am, I stopped at a McDonald's on the way back, even though she was asleep and therefore was no longer screaming for it.

She woke up as soon as we got home. She immediately started in on the chicken nuggets. I pulled them out of the bag, thinking this would make me the best mom ever, but she was *still* complaining about how I hadn't gone back to the first McDonald's. Yes, even though she had chicken nuggets in her hot little hand, she was still complaining.

It got worse.

She wanted, as most kids do, ketchup to go with her fries and chicken nuggets. The girl at the drive-through had neglected to put any packets in our bag. No problem, I said, we'd use our ketchup.

I went to our refrigerator.

Problem.

We threw out the entire contents of our refrigerator after the Ice Storm. I swear I put ketchup on the shopping list Hari took with him. But I might have taken it back off, thinking it could wait for the second trip.

That was a big mistake. There was no ketchup in the house. And she refused to eat her food because there was no ketchup. It's currently sitting in the fridge because she wanted to keep it for when we get ketchup. i didn't even try to explain about how it's going to be inedible by tomorrow. It's probably already inedible.

Eventually I reheated the leftover macaroni and cheese from a couple of nights ago, gave her an ice cream cone and got her to bed ASAP.

However, while she was eating her reheated mac & cheese, I was eating a hamburger. I went to get the ketchup to put on it and suddenly realized how disappointed she must have been to find there was no ketchup based on how disappointed I was when I found there was no ketchup.

Tomorrow we will be buying ketchup.

Imagination

Jessica can make anything come to life. Right now she's having a couple of weapons from her knight's castle talk to some beads from her jewelry making kit. Everyone seems to be getting along.

It's not fair!

I got up late this week on both daycare days, once because the alarm didn't go off and once because I was sleeping on the floor in the kids' room (not recommended, by the way) and didn't hear it from downstairs. I didn't have time to get both kids ready so I got Xander ready and left while Hari got Jessica ready. Now, when I get her ready, it's all must-have-dresses or must-have-pink-or-purple. I got back this morning in time to pick her up and take her to school and what was she wearing? Purple top and BLACK PANTS. I get the feeling Hari just pulls whatever comes to hand out of her dresser and hands them to her and she puts them on. It's not fair!

Counting

We have a lift-the-flap book and one of the pages shows flaps up numbered 1 to 20. Jessica impressed me by reading the numbers in order. Till we got past 10. Then she needed some help. She skipped 13, as she always does. I don't know if she's superstitious or that just happens to be a number she forgets. Then we got higher: 17-18-19....Ten-teen.

The same book also has a page with shapes. Did you know the shape of a stop sign is an optagon?

My little "help"er

I wanted to drink a diet Dr. Pepper. I had only one can cold in the fridge, so I took it out. Jessica picked it up and asked if she could help me open it. Even though I said no (nicely), she continued to hold onto it. Before I could disarm him she was "helping" me by shaking it.

I have not yet dared to open that can. Another one is currently chilling in the fridge.

How do you answer this?

In the last two days, Jessica has said several times that she wants to "be alone." "I never get to be alone," she says. Or, "Why don't I ever get to be alone?" What do you say to that? It's not like I can just leave her alone in the house. How does a 5 year old get to be really alone?

(I won't get into wondering why she wants to be alone. Maybe she just wants to be introspective.)

Species confusion

Jessica's favorite stuffed animal is Sally, her build-a-bear dog. Sally is a siberian husky. Jessica got Sally last Christmas. In the last month or two, she's been insisting Sally is a cat. Why? Because she has pointed (triangular) ears, like a cat. We even had to buy some cat toys for Sally and her "kitten" Cookie (the matching Siberian husky puppy).

She's just a little bit crazy. = )